Well, I had a pleasant…

Well, I had a pleasant holiday (thanks to James for the virtual bouquet!), with cuddling and dinner and movie-watching and cookies with little red hearts baked in (I hardly ever buy that kind of thing, but somehow I couldn't resist this year). And I gave a few presents, which the presented seemed to enjoy, so really, it was a very nice day all around.

Today is catch-up day! So far I've handled bills (my student loans have kicked back in, ugh!, but at least I can afford to pay them, barely). Next is sorting out my desk and filing the stack of filing stuff. Then sorting out my grading notebook and figuring out what I have to grade today. I'm feeling very organizationally minded. :-)

I have a few student appointments today, but mostly it should be pretty free. That's good -- I also have plants to water and laundry to do. I do think it's funny how having grading makes all my other chores sound so pleasant by comparison. I'm not sure why -- the grading itself really isn't unpleasant. I think it's just that it still intimidates me, and so I tend to put it off 'til the last minute, and then I have a whole huge many-hour stack to do at once. Hopefully, I'll eventually stop being intimidated by it (yes, I'm qualified to do this; yes, I have a justification for these grades; yes, I really do know what I'm doing here) and then will stop avoiding it. Or at least avoiding it as much. It can actually be fun when done in small batches.

I wish I could tell y'all more about the papers and about the teaching in general -- so many of the things I'd say would be funny stories about the students, though, and it just wouldn't be fair to them -- it would be so easy for a student to find these pages, and I would hate for them to feel like their professor was publically mocking them (even if I took out the names, which of course I would, they might recognize themselves -- or think they did). So no funny stories. Maybe I'll collect them all in a book in ten years and publish them then -- that way, I'll hopefully have had enough students that they will all be safely anonymous.

I *am* getting better as a teacher. That's tremendously exciting. There's also a clear and direct inverse correlation between how lazy I am about my prep and how well the class goes. Again, though, as I get more experienced, my prep time gets more pleasant and efficient. Experience is truly a wondrous thing. :-)

Okay, more chores. I hope y'all are having nice days, and that you survived the holiday with spirits cheerfully intact. At least you know that I'm fond of you, my munchkins, even if it is in a somewhat abstract way. :-)

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